Syrian Refugee Crisis: Our Chance to See God (Mark 9:30-37)

Written by the Rev. Dr. Cari Jackson, a United Church of Christ pastor

Since 2011, more than 200,000 Syrians died in the civil war. Close to 12 million, one-half of the Syrian population of 23 million, have been forced from their homes. More than 4 million have fled.

What began as an act of civil protest has continued to expand to civil war, genocide, and mass exodus. It began as protest in response to "the arrest and torture of teenagers who wrote revolutionary slogans on a school wall."

As Jesus and his disciples were traveling through one town after another, his disciples debated who among them would be the greatest and have the most important position when Jesus came into his kingdom. Jesus responded,

'Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.' Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, 'Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.' (Mark 9: 35b-37, NIV)